Today was a pretty full-on day, spent nearly entirely in Northern Ireland…once we got past the accident that must have happened just minutes before we came by, where a driver had lost control of her car. We have two nurses on our tour so we pulled over and offered help, but it was unnecessary. She was only shocked by it all and crying. Rather than hang around and hold up (more) traffic, we continued on.
First stop today was in Derry/Londonderry (depending on who you ask). We had a guided tour from Martin McGowan City Tours, by Martin himself. It was really interesting and you feel so sorry for the irish people, though of course, it always takes 2 to go to war. We stopped by a memorial to Bloody Sunday (and of course I keep singing U2’s Bloody Sunday in my head whenever I think of it!) and Martin explained a few things to us. I had to wipe away some tears when nobody was looking. Very sad. Near the memorial, there are also sides of houses painted with some murals. Unfortunately, I was on the wrong side of the bus to take a good photo besides the fact it was raining…
Martin then took us for a walk on the wall. This wall was put up by the english army back during the reign of Elizabeth the First. It only took them 5 years. We had some good views from the top of this wall. It still surrounds the whole town.
There’s not much in the way of nice buildings in the town because of the bombings during the times of ‘The Troubles’ in this area. This one is a Catholic Temperance Hall (ironically, it’s now a pub):
Martin took us back to the bus and informed us that he’s been seconded by Tourism Ireland to appear in Central Station in New York for a week in September to promote Ireland. He must be doing something right!
Then it was off in the direction of Giants Causeway with a few stops along the way. The coast scenery is spectacular, including Dunluce Castle ruins:
We were supposed to carry on, on the road we were on, but we were diverted in Bushmills because of yet another accident. This meant we had to turn around (3 point turn in the bus!) and then poor William had to find a route suitable for the bus. There was no way we could skip Giants Causeway, after all! We only ended up being half an hour late, fortunately!
When we got to the Giants Causeway, we saw a short movie on the subject (which you can skip because the whole thing is reiterated by the ‘tour guide’ on the bus on the way down). We got the bus down, because it was there… The causeway itself is pretty impressive. I’m surprised they allow people to climb all over it. It’s quite dangerous, especially in wet weather like we had. I climbed on it a little tiny bit, so I could take some close-up photos, but didn’t go nearly as far as some of the others. I didn’t want to break anything! Got some good photos though:
We had 1 1/2 hours here, which was plenty of time, unless you wanted to climb the path up around the bay. I didn’t even walk back up, but caught the bus with most of the others. I was hanging out for a coffee and was a bit hungry too, and it was nearly 2pm.
After this, it was off along the coast some more. We could actually see all the way to Scotland’s Mull of Kintyre but, since it was raining, I couldn’t take any photos. Not that you could see terribly much except for land and lots of sky and water… We passed by Ballycastle and started into the Glens of Antrim area:
There was a lot of heather between Lake Rheema and Cushenden, and we caught a glimpse of the castle in Cushendall:
Then it was more beautiful coastline til we had an ice-cream stop (for the others, photos for me!) in the village of Carnlough:
Then it was back on the bus for more scenic coast before we headed to Belfast. We stayed in the Europa Hotel. I was on the 10th floor and had a great view into the suburbs and mountains. The room was nice, but a bit small. I had to move the furniture into the corner so I could sit at the desk and get to the window. But it was still better than the previous one.
We had some time before dinner, so I took off to photograph some beautiful buildings, like City Hall with its Titanic Memorial and The Spires, as well as some others just standing around…
Then it was time for dinner and the Crown Pub across the road. It’s 150 years old and has all these booths and beautiful tile-work inside. It seems to be really popular with the tourists. We saw whole groups going in to sight-see. I only have a photo of the outside, unfortunately.
Then it was time for bed, but only after one last photo of my view by night:
